Capture China’s Consumers, Capture China’s Women

As I watched China successfully launch the Shenzhou 9 spacecraft last week, carrying the country’s first-ever female astronaut, Liu Yang, I couldn’t help from thinking that China has come a long way in terms of improving gender equality. Though it’s still a work in progress, it might come as a shock that when I was born, some people were a little disappointed because I was a girl. And I was born in Shanghai, the most modern city in China. The same feeling was even there when my little sister was born, 12 years later.

I have nothing to complain about, really — my family loves my sister and me deeply. But there was a definite dynamic at play in the way I was raised — as a daughter, I should be, according to culture, raised in a “wealthy” (spoiled) way. (For lack of a better word.) Most Chinese parents believe now that their daughters should be raised “wealthily” so they don’t go running off with poor boys. Boys, on the other hand — as the thinking goes — should be raised in a “poor” way, so they’ll appreciate things more and work harder to earn their way up.

So, my suggestion to brands: target women in China.

Chinese women hold the buying power in the households, and Chinese girls have the buying power over their parents and boyfriends. It’s much easier for a Chinese girl to beg her dad for a new car and get it than for a Chinese boy to even consider asking. And it’s only normal that girls “need” dozens of bags and shoes to go with their different outfits. You might say it’s the same elsewhere — daddies usually have a soft spot for their daughters.

“Show-off” sites like Mogujie are becoming popular with the wealthier urban female demographic

This is true, but just look at few successful e-commerce/Taobao-related SNS sites in China, many in the mold of sites like Pinterest. As with Pinterest, the likes of Meilishuo or Mogujie are female-dominated. Chinese girls enjoy sharing what they buy both on- and offline, let alone the hours they spend per day just cruising online for no particular reason. But while Pinterest started off as a female-dominated visual sharing site, with more male users coming later, it’s not really common in China to see men sharing online what they bought or spending so much time online (without being considered strange).

Offline, a 20-year-old girl in China can proudly tell you that she bought a Louis Vuitton handbag, for example, because it’s a good investment compared to buying another leather handbag, due to its durability and style. A 40-year-old woman in China will buy the same handbag but for a very different reason — if she’s not spending that money on herself, her husband might spend it on a mistress.

No matter how different their reasons for buying, the easy thing to remember is to target both of these female demographics both on- and offline, since they’re the ones in control of the men’s pocketbooks.

In addition to her work as a social media and PR professional, blogger and brand consultant, Hong Kong-based Elle Lee now hosts the new online program Weibo Today. Check out Elle’s personal site at elleiconlee.com and follow her on Twitter at @ElleIconLee or Sina Weibo at @ElleLeeHK.